


Accusation

by ViridianPanther



Series: Thirty Days [2]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Anger, Betrayal, Distrust, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-16
Updated: 2012-07-16
Packaged: 2017-11-10 01:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/460771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViridianPanther/pseuds/ViridianPanther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nine minutes from Mars, Shepard and Alenko are still finding it difficult to trust each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Accusation

"What do you want?" he says, not looking up from the greaves he's attaching to his legs.

"We need to talk, Shepard."

"We're nine minutes from Mars, Kaidan," he growls. "Now isn't the time."

"Would you watch your tone?" I snap, feeling the heated residue of two years' anger and uncertainty rising in my throat. "I've just seen my city get invaded, I'm liable to be fractious."

"Fractious, huh?" He looks up for the first time, a tempestuous storm brewing in his eyes. "Well, in the last three years, I've had my corpse abducted by a terrorist organisation. I've woken up in the middle of nowhere, with all my friends gone. I've sent people I loved to their deaths, and, _to top it off,_ " he flares, jumping to his feet and eyeballing me with incendiary daggers, "I saved my best friend from a Collector attack, only for him to then call me a traitor."

I see Shepard's clenched fist loosen in the corner of my eye, and it's only now that I realise I've been flaring blue in self-defence.

"Fuck!" he ejaculates with a hoot of breath, and steps back, and I consciously ignore how good he smells, and how much more handsome he's grown with age. "Sorry, Kaidan," he mumbles, sheepishly, reaching for his omni-tool and winding it onto his glove.

I think back to that mail I never sent him, the one where I couldn't bring myself say what I felt after Horizon. The mail I now regret never sending, the apologies I wish I'd made sooner. The way the expression on his face just now is the angriest I've ever seen him, the way I've never, _ever_ heard him swear until now.

"I'm sorry too, Shepard," I mutter, sitting next to him on the crate and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I was the one being unfair. You've no reason to be sorry, Kaidan," he says, blankly, flipping switches on the inside of the chestplate and removing the port covers.

"I do. I'm sorry for what I said back on Horizon, but…"

"Look, Kaidan," he says, stopping and twisting to look me in the eye. "We can have a heart-to-heart later," he whispers, "but I need to know that you're good for this mission, _now._ "

I get the message, but I can't dismiss the things I want to say, the things left unsaid for too long, the things I haven't even confessed to myself.

"Kaidan," Shepard whispers, slowly, "are we good?"

I let out a sigh in frustration and resign myself to talking about this later. "Yeah." A deep intake of breath, a nod, and confirmation. "Yeah, we're good."

"Good," he says, nodding.


End file.
